A gift of story

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

DURING A QUIET MOMENT this Christmas week, I pulled out from the shelf and read again the tiny book “The Gift of Story: A wise tale about what is enough” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. It looked so small beside the big, thick “Women Who Run with the Wolves,” a groundbreaking book also by Estes. On the same shelf level was my first children’s book—“Toby Runs Away”—that my mother read to me when I was little. I don’t remember how it got there.

Estes’ “The Gift of Story” is all of 32 pages. Its big drop letters at the beginning of every section go with exquisite illustrations that look like wood cut designs. Many years ago I bought two copies of the book and gave the other copy to a friend whose friend was very ill.

I read the book again because I have just come up with a little story book myself. My and Jess Abrera’s book miraculously made it to the National Bookstores in Metro Manila the day before Christmas and it was selling. Some branches had to have their supply replenished. I thought, it was when the book was out there that I was pondering what the story might mean. Or if I did it right. That is, from Estes’ Jungian perspective.

Estes is a known American poet, psychoanalyst and post-trauma specialist who was raised in a now nearly vanished oral and ethnic tradition. She founded a human rights organization that has, as one of its missions, to broadcast strengthening stories via short-wave radio to trouble spots around the world.

In “The Gift of Story,” Estes tells a story within a story within a story, or several stories in one story, woven in a way that keeps you in awe and wonderment. Despite the bleak landscape of war and poverty Estes’ story glows because of the way it is told.

One of the children’s books I read before I sat down to write my story was “Sami in the Time of the Troubles” by Florence Parry Heide and Judith Heide Gilliland (watercolor by Ted Lewin) which is about a child caught up in the horrors of war. A difficult plot to tackle indeed. But they pulled it off.

I asked myself, how was I going to write a children’s story about the recent natural disasters that left many children terrified, homeless or dead? I wanted to write a healing story for kids after I visited a disaster area and learned from news reports and first-hand accounts about the trauma that the children suffered. Well, to make a long story short, the story wrote itself. And Jess, the multi-awarded cartoonist of the Inquirer, said yes to making it come to life in full color.

“Bituin and the Big Flood” /Si Bituin at ang Malaking Baha (Anvil Publishing, 24 pages, P78.50) is dedicated to the children who lost their lives during “Ondoy” and “Pepeng,” and to the children who survived. The story is in English and Pilipino.

Stories hold magic. And so important in sharing that magic is the way they are told. Stories are also a medium for healing especially for children who cannot verbalize in precise words the feelings they have inside. A story is told, children listen and get connected to the characters in the story.

Children have stories to tell, too. Through these they are able to surface and release their inner and hidden feelings.

The story hopes to help the children who experienced the recent natural disasters and tragedies that visited homes and communities. Told simply and through illustrations, the story is about family and community, about helping one another and doing something good during and after the difficult times.

I thank child psychotherapist Dr. Ma. Lourdes A. Carandang for her input to improve the story and the guide questions.

At the end of the story are suggested guide questions the storyteller could ask to encourage the children to tell their own stories or express what they remember and feel through words, drawings, play and other ways. We listen closely to what they say, help ease their fears and give them hope.

Here’s what Estes says about stories. “Like night dreams, stories often use symbolic language, therefore bypassing the ego and persona, and traveling straight to the spirit and soul who listen for the ancient and universal instructions imbedded there. Because of this process, stories can teach, correct errors, lighten the heart and the darkness, provide psychic shelter, assist transformation and heal wounds.

“(T)he tales people tell one another weave a strong fabric that can warm the coldest emotional or spiritual nights. So the stories that rise up out of the group become, over time, both extremely personal and quite eternal, for they take on a life of their own when told over and over again.

“Though none of us will live forever, the stories can. As long as one soul remains who can tell the story, and that by the recounting of the tale, the greatest forces of love, mercy, generosity and strength are continuously called into being in the world, I promise you…it will be enough.”

A dear friend who lived and worked in Indonesia for more than 20 years gave me a big colorful book, “Letters from Aceh” which contains the letters/stories, drawings and pictures of children from Aceh who survived the Dec. 2004 tsunami that killed some 250,000 people in Asia and beyond. It also has photographs of the devastation. The exchange of letters (in the kids’ handwriting) is between kids from Aceh and kids from around parts of the world. The recent killer typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng that hit the Philippines were nothing compared to the 2004 tragedy.

Karina Bolasco of Anvil publishing just texted to say that there is a 36 percent discount for bulk orders of “Bituin.” Contact marketing@anvilpublishing.com or call 6375141, 6373621.

With God’s awesome mercy, 2010 will be gentler than the year just past.

Can heaven and nature sing?

Philippind Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
HAVE A QUIET and truly meaningful celebration of Christmas. And please pause and remember those who cannot celebrate because they are in deep pain and sorrow.

Yesterday, two days before Christmas Day, journalists led a nationwide candle vigil for justice to mark the first month of the unspeakable crime that gave the Philippines the infamous reputation as the most dangerous place on earth for journalists. That now sounds cliché. But unspeakable grief is never cliché.

Here in Metro Manila vigils were held in media offices, the Inquirer among them, and at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City.

The vigil was not just to remember the 57 victims of the massacre that included 30 journalists but to also remind that we must continue to demand justice so that justice is served soonest and that we must be watchful of the prosecution of the cases. Lawyers and advocates assisting the victims’ families gave updates. Journalists who cover the Maguindanao situation were also invited.

As I ponder over the gruesome fate of the 57 who were murdered one by one last Nov. 23 in Maguindanao, I cannot get myself to relish fully the joy of Christmas. I imagine the families, the children especially, who lost the persons most dear to them and whom they need most in their lives.

We didn’t even have to imagine, we saw photographs and moving images of the bereaved prostrate and inconsolable in their grief. They will carry the pain of loss all their lives. They will never be the same again.

When Mayor Andal Mapatuan Jr., the principal suspect and brains was mobbed by irate journalists (mostly photojournalists with their “deadly weapons”) covering the preliminary investigation at the Department of Justice last week, he got a few blows. They were not deliberate, we were told, but they might as well be. The invectives from the raging public were.

Human Rights commissioner Leila de Lima instantly warned against violent intents against Ampatuan Jr. and that was to be expected. But, come on, there had to be at least some display of public outrage, particularly from the media, personally directed at Ampatuan Jr. right there as he walked manacled, wearing a bullet proof vest and heavily guarded and protected.

That surely must have been the first time Ampatuan Jr. ever faced a crowd so angry at him. Nobody and nobody in the past had dared cross his path.

And when, on Nov. 23, a group tried in the proper and official way to contest his authority through the electoral process, he used guns, goons, backhoes and everything in his power to eliminate all of them in one full sweep, accompanying journalists and lawyers included. So it was but right that at the DOJ, Ampatuan Jr. got a taste of the wrath of the public that could not even match the wrath he reserves for those who dare challenge him in his Maguindanao turf.

So, take that, and that and that. What’s a little shove? That was fine by me. Just please don’t kill him or allow him to kill himself. I want to see him being read his sentence.

Too bad he won’t fry. He will not hang or be killed by lethal injection as the death penalty has been outlawed. But if it were not, I would probably not write a word to say he should live. I think I remember Pope John Paul II say that death penalty might allowed but only in very rare and extreme cases. Maybe for the Hannibal Lecters of this world which the brains of the Nov. 23 massacre could be compared to.

I have watched a convict (who had raped several of his daughters repeatedly) die by lethal injection when capital punishment was briefly revived during the Estrada administration. Believe me, it is something I will never forget.

I do not apologize for writing about a gruesome subject on the eve of Christmas. If the families of the victims of the Nov. 23 massacre are reading this, I would like them to know that the joy in my Christmas, has also been diminished. But only diminished, I must say, if compared to theirs that has been totally snuffed out. I cannot fathom their grief, I cannot measure their pain.

Last year, my Christmas column was “And heaven and nature sing”, a line from the famous carol “Joy to the world” written in 1719 by Isaac Watts. That line goes with the blast of trumpets that breaks open the skies and makes the earth heave. Now my Christmas column is asking, can heaven and nature sing?

Indeed, can heaven and nature sing after the tragedies that recently visited us. Can heaven and nature sing after huge climate change conference in Copenhagen ended last week?

Better than nothing was the common refrain. Meaning, the Copenhagen Accord left much to be desired. Here are excerpts from the statement of Eco-waste Coalition, a network of some 85 civil society groups, on the “disappointing” accord:

“It is truly regrettable that our leaders failed to fulfill their historic and moral duty to craft an ambitious treaty to address the climate crisis with clear and specific greenhouse emission reduction targets and adequate financing mechanism to help developing countries grapple with the effects of climate change and enable their transition to a low carbon development pathway. They could have done better than condemn us and future generations to climate hell.”

“We urge politicians as well as citizens and institutions across the globe to insist on a just, ambitious and legally-binding deal in 2010 to avert the climate crisis from escalating further and causing massive hardship on poor and marginalized communities who will bear the brunt of Copenhagen’s dismal failure.”

Still, have a truly green Christmas!

Global editorial on climate change

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

LAST WEEK, one day before the Copenhagen summit (Dec. 7-18) on climate change opened, 56 major newspapers in 45 countries spoke with one voice. They came out with a common global editorial written in 20 languages on climate change.

I was hoping that Philippine newspapers would join major newspapers all over the world and carry the global editorial that London’s The Guardian had initiated. But last week the Philippine media were just too caught up in the brutality without compare that visited our ranks. News about the mass murder in Maguindanao of 30 media practitioners plus 27 non-media persons, and the public unraveling of the unspeakable evil that had long stalked that Mindanao wasteland could hardly give way to anything else. The pages of Philippine newspapers have been soaking in blood since Nov. 23.

The entire global editorial, “14 days to seal history's judgment on this generation”, cannot fit in this space, so I have only excerpts here. You can find the complete text, as well as the story behind its drafting, in the internet.

“Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

“Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.

“Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

“The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea.

“Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.

“But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June's UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline. As one negotiator put it: "We can go into extra time but we can't afford a replay."

“At the deal's heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided — and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels.

“Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level.

“Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world's biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction.

“Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation.

“Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over short-sightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature".

“The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.”

Journalists rage: Stop the killing

Philippine Daily Inquirer/News/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

ENRAGED JOURNALISTS clad in black, both local and foreign, took to the streets of Manila Wednesday, becoming newsmakers themselves by denouncing the massacre of at least 30 media workers and 27 others on Nov. 23 in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.

At the same time in Maguindanao, journalists briefly took a break from covering military operations and trekked to the massacre site in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman to light candles in honor of their colleagues killed in the country’s worst case of election-related violence.

Protest rallies in different parts of the country and the world were also held to coincide with Wednesday’s “Black Day” march, Nestor Burgos of the National Union of Journalists (NUJP) said.

More than a thousand protesters from various sectors in Manila marched with journalists from España Avenue to the Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) Bridge near Malacañang Palace to shout out their protest close to the seat of government power. They called for justice for the victims and an end to the culture of impunity.

Most dangerous

They also denounced and blamed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for the massacre that has earned the Philippines the reputation of being the most dangerous place in the world for journalists.

“Stop the killing” and “Never again to martial law” rang out as the marchers wound their way toward Mendiola.

One participant carried a placard with a toy backhoe on it—a reminder of how the victims and their vehicles were buried in mass graves with the use of a local government-owned backhoe that was waiting at the massacre site. Many wore black shirts and arm bands.

Protesters carried three black coffins symbolizing the death of accountability, press freedom and rule of law. Others carried white coffins and placards with the victims’ names and photos.

The body of a reporter from the Midland Review has yet to be found.

Independent probe

The November 23 Movement, a coalition of media organizations, and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) were the main organizers of the rallies.

The movement has been calling for an independent investigation of the crime. Aside from journalists, the dead included two women lawyers, and members of the Mangudadatu family and their supporters.

With the larger-than-life statue of press freedom icon Chino Roces in the background, journalists took turns condemning the unabated killing of journalists since Ms Arroyo became president in 2001.

The Nov. 23 massacre brought to more than 100 the number of slain journalists since 1986, about two-thirds of them since Ms Arroyo took power, said Roby Alampay, executive director of Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA).

Inquirer publisher and Philippine Press Institute president Isagani Yambot delivered an impassioned speech in Filipino calling on journalists not to let their guard down. “Sumumpa tayo na hindi tayo titigil (Let us make a vow not to let up),” Yambot said.

Referring to the Nov. 23 victims, Yambot said, “Ang kanilang kaluluwa ay nananaghoy at humihingi ng katarungan (Their souls are crying out for justice).”

He quoted poet John Donne: “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

This won’t be forgotten

“Our quest for justice will not end in the filing of cases and the arrest of the suspects,” echoed NUJP director Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao chief correspondent, who was among the leaders of the march in Maguindanao.

“This story will not end even if justice is done. We will not allow this to be forgotten,” Alampay added.

Alampay said Jakarta journalists were the first to hold a protest rally after the Maguindanao massacre.

The Inquirer has set up a fund for the children of the slain journalists.

“The slain journalists left behind 75 children and dependents. An entire generation of journalists in Mindanao has been lost,” said Sydney Morning Herald’s Ruth Pollard, an IFJ representative who joined a fact-finding mission in Maguindanao.

Two past deans and the present dean of the University of the Philippines’ College of Mass Communication—Georgina Encanto, Luis Teodoro and Rolando Tolentino, respectively—marched with the protesters and carried their own streamer.

Organizers announced candle-lighting rituals all over the country to be held on Dec. 23.

How they love one another

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

WISHING YOU ALL a meaningful Human Rights Day. It’s been 62 years since the International Declaration of Human Rights was signed and adopted by nations the world over. And where are we?

Last week’s Time magazine cover story was about “The Decade from Hell”. Indeed, in the past 10 years, terrorist attacks, wars, financial melt-downs, natural and man-made disasters, viruses, diseases, hunger and all kinds of violence have visited this planet and sent humanity running for cover. Humanity continues to be under attack.

We are now ending this decade and entering the next. Christians are observing the Advent season and ushering in Christmas. Muslims have just ended their own yearly observance of Eid ul Adha or feast of sacrifice. All these as we Filipinos remain shocked beyond words by the Nov. 23 massacre of more than 60 human beings, 30 journalists among them, in the Ampatuan fiefdom in Maguindanao.

The evils and tragedies of the past and the present, the human rights violations and crimes against humanity have been widely documented and written about, but sadly, the little stories about compassion and caring for one another are often unwritten and forgotten. The great news about Efren Penaflorida who was voted the CNN Hero of the Year was all but drowned out by the blood that flowed in Maguindanao.

I was recently invited to the 20th anniversary of the Coalition of Services of the Elderly (COSE) and the launching of the book “Love Grows: A Primer” and the 10 Ulirang Nakakatanda (10 Outstanding Older People) Awards. I was asked to say a few worlds about the little book which COSE published. Many of the people at the celebration were advanced not only in age but also in wisdom and in grace. Most of them came from the poor sector of society. One of the special guests was a 107-year-old lady who walked straight to the podium unaided.

Written history—as we’ve studied and read it—has always been from the point of view of those who were in power or wanted to wrest power. The history of nations were written from the point of view of politics and power and the people who made things happen in a big way. The scholars who wrote them do not include the voices of the little people who were themselves part of history. I mean real voices, real faces, real stories.

I say all these because I think COSE’s unpretentious book could provide some missing voices in our cultural history. Some of the stories of the goldie oldies tell of a bygone era that many of us have not experienced. The war, the idyllic countryside of their youth and, to borrow the title of a great opus, love in the time of cholera.

What’s different about this book? This book is mainly about caring and community among older people most of whom happen to be poor. It is about growing and becoming. It is about dignity in the face of the inevitable.

I praise COSE for making this book happen. I have often wondered what it would have been like if there were no writers who wrote about the life of Jesus Christ, what he taught about love and justice and forgiveness and peace and giving up one’s life for one’s friends. We would have little to go by.

So you see, I said to the older people and young ones present, it is important that the good things are recalled (while they can) and told and written and read so that older people of the present and the future will be inspired to give of themselves. The stories in the book are not stunning stories about dramatic lives and dramatic deeds. They are small stories about loving service.

This book reassures us that we have not lost it all—to politicians, warlords, climate change, globalization, showbiz, fast food and what-have-you. Many generations from now, this humble book will really be history. It will provide some missing pieces. Many who will read it will be amazed and they will say, “See, how they loved one another.”

Here are COSE’s “10 Ulirang Nakakatanda” of 2009 and their good deeds. (This is probably the only time the awardees will read their names in a newspaper.)

Pelagia Baclayo took a course on herbal medicine and then, as member of an organized group of older people, opened a herbal garden for the community. Salve Basiano, whose husband is blind, helped organize blind musicians to play in malls as an income generating project. She is also the past president of the Confederation of Older People’s Organizations of the Philippines.

Estrella Buelo, president of the Quiapo Group of Older People is active in prison work. Perfecto Cunanan is a farmer leader who organized older farmers to join community based programs. Rodolfo Larida is one of the few male home carers in his community and is available 24/7 for bedridden patients in urban poor areas.

Crispulo Migrino is disabled but serves as president of the federation of 13 groups in Commonwealth-, QC.

Epifania Noblado not only takes care of the infirm in Arayat, Pampanga, she advocates home care to be part of government policy.

Eufrocia Omayam helped develop community-based programs in Davao which allow older people to take care of one another. Lina Patricio’s home in the city was demolished and her family was dumped in Paliparan, Cavite but she, along with a group of religious sisters and other older people, helped to organize her community. Priscilla Mariano is a respected elder in her community. Though not in good health, she pushed the passing of an ordinance that would recognize the needs of older people so that they could be assisted. She has been serving in the board of hospital and water services for 35 years without compensation.

COSE’s programs are managed by older people themselves. An affiliate of Helpage International, COSE aims to keep older people active in communities and increase awareness of their importance.

Journalists and women as safety shield

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
IF I COULD GET HOLD of even only one of the perpetrators of the Nov. 23 broad daylight mass murder/massacre of 57 human beings, 30 of them from the media, I would ask only one question. (And I shudder to think that I know the answer to my own question.) My question would be: What or who made you think or believe that you could commit this evil deed and get away with it?

I cry out, de profundis: President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, how have we come to this? For the 21st century or for just this decade, the Philippines can now claim a day of horror, a day of evil of its own to remember: 11/23.

People used to say the name of the month and day to be remembered, such as Sept. 21 or 
Aug. 21, or invoke numbers to never forget, such as P.D. 1081, to conjure up images of blood and terror. Or they use them to remember some significant event, like Nueve de Febrero (name of a street) and Mayo Uno (Labor Day).

Now we abbreviate the dates and turn them into catchwords, logos or tattoos so that we will never forget, because there are too many to not forget. Tragedies like 9/11. More than the sound and the look of the numbers, there is something about them that should make us remember and vow to never allow these evil to happen again.

We’ve run out of superlatives to describe the massacre that was so well planned and so swiftly carried out in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, on 11/23.

I write about this horror even though, in the past days, so much have been written and said about it. I want the story to be part, not just of my journalism files, but to be part of me as a human being who happens to be a journalist. I share in the grief in a very profound way. I burst into tears as soon as I learned about what happened to the journalists and to the many who thought they were safe being with them.

The more than 50 victims did not die in a battlefield or a bomb blast or by being at the wrong place at the wrong time. They were, in fact, in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing. And they were murdered one by one.

Their killers made sure none of them would make it alive to civilization to tell the gory tale. The mass graves had been dug ahead of time. A backhoe was on standby to move the earth and immediately cover the corpses and the vehicles. What a massive undertaking indeed. But the mastermind and perpetrators believed, they felt very assured, that they could get away with it. With impunity.

Evil forces were lying in wait for the convoy to pass through that stretch of road while on its way to the Commission on Elections. The whys and hows of that fateful road trip is well known by now. Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu’s wife Genalin, accompanied by supporters, lawyers and a horde of journalists, were on their way to file Mangudadatu’s certificate of candidacy for governor that would challenge the powerful warlord Ampatuan clan. Mangudadatu stayed behind. The convoy was waylaid. The rest is bloody history.

It used to be that there was safety in having journalists and women in risky undertakings. They act not only as safety shield, journalists could also be witnesses to unfolding events and later be counted upon to tell the truth about what they have witnessed.

When Sen. Ninoy Aquino came home from exile in 1983, he had journalists with him. Moments before he was assassinated he told them to watch out. It could be over fast, he said. Those last moments and the moment he was shot were recorded on video and on voice recorder. The tape recorder of Time magazine’s Sandra Burton was on when the shots rang out as Ninoy descended from the plane. Photojournalists on the ground captured images of Ninoy bloodied on the ground.

Now we are waiting to hear the sound of the massacre that was supposedly recorded on audio tape by one of the victims. I hope this recording exists.

There is safety in women and in numbers. Bare breasted women from indigenous tribes have confronted military men who protected infrastructure projects that would destroy ancestral lands. Weepy whistle-blower Jun Lozada surrounded himself with nuns who acted as his security cordon when he testified about the alleged payoffs that involved government officials.

Toward the end of the martial law years when repression of the media again intensified, the women journalists came out with damning article after damning article to expose the abuses of the Marcos military regime. We thought we were invincible. And despite the series of interrogations meant to cow us, we continued to dare. The military backed off when we haled them to court.

That feeling of invincibility now belongs to the past. Here in the Philippines and in many dangerous places abroad, women journalists are as unsafe as their male colleagues. I think of Russian journalist Anna Politskaya who was murdered recently, of our own Marlene Esperat who was gunned down before her children. Nuns who braved the wilds and the barricades have been brutally killed, shot at close range. I think of Sr. Dorothy Stang who defended the Amazon forest and the indigenous communities of Brazil. I think of the Maryknoll missionaries who were killed in El Salvador and the nuns in East Timor.

Journalists are sometimes thought to be intrepid survivors, the last ones left standing. Although many have died in the crossfire, they were not the targets. Those who survived brought us stories and images of historical events. Movies about these events usually have journalists weaving in and out of the scenes. They do not die like the protagonists. They grow old and write memoirs, books and historical novels.

Somehow 11/23 changed all that.